Friday Feature - 21.07.17

As part of our Meet the Maker series on our blog, we have created Friday Feature. Every Friday we will feature a team member and their Etsy shop, to give you a quick glance behind the scenes and discover more about our diverse team members.

Friday 21 July, 2017 - Melody G Design

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF:

Hi I'm Melody! I was born and bred in Watford, North London. I've always been creative ever since I was tiny, and a few years ago I finished a BA in Fine Art Painting from Winchester School of Art. I currently make and sell my colourful jewellery part time, as well as still making paintings and exhibiting whenever I can - and this is all fuelled by my day job at the Southbank Centre. As well as doing crafty bits about 80% of the time, I love baking, rock climbing, styling fashion/concept shoots with my photographer pal, and petting every single animal I see.

Hard at work in the studio.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED ON ETSY?

I started selling on Etsy when I had just finished uni and was looking for a way to get some exposure for my prints and painting, and sell some of the smaller works. While it didn't quite work for that particular type of work I was doing at the time, it did help me understand how the platform worked and the amazing community behind it. My work developed over the years and I've found it's the most successful output for the jewellery I create at the moment. It's still tough, but I always try and keep my work as true to my ideas and as unique as it can be whilst still being commercially viable - I'm getting there slowly!

TELL US ABOUT YOUR DESIGN/MAKING PROCESS:

My design ideas normally come to me when I'm least expecting it. If I sit down in my studio and try to come up with a concept for a new collection, or even just some basic designs, I get nowhere. Something will pop into my head while I'm on the tube or out with friends, and I always try to jot it down and build on it later on because that's when my work is most successful. The process is similar for all my collections - once I have the basic ideas down, I build on my colourful digital print designs using photoshop, then use illustrator to create vector files for the jewellery. I get the pieces lasercut at my suppliers, then put every single fixing on by hand! It takes a while but I love doing it.

Melody's most recent work

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS?

It sounds super cheesy but when someone buys something I've poured my heart and soul and creativity into, it lights me up - it's so gratifying. As well as that I LOVE the freedom of it! It can be difficult to stay disciplined and motivated sometimes, and it can definitely be scary because income can be unreliable, but being able to have flexibility whilst doing something I love makes it so worth it. I'm desperate to do this full time and ditch the part-time work when I can.

WHEN AND WHY DID YOU JOIN THE TEAM?

I think I joined just a few months ago. Even though I'd been on Etsy for years I didn't realise the LOLO team was out there! I initially joined because I thought it'd help me find out when different markets etc. were on, but it's so much more than that. Everyone in the group seems so lovely and friendly and they've provided me with an INSANE amount of valuable advice and ideas. I genuinely don't think I'd have progressed to where I am now without them. So... thank you!